ATC staffing issues making skies less safe, says pilots union

Australia’s biggest pilots’ union has claimed air traffic control staffing issues are making skies less safe for pilots and passengers. The Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) has told Australian Aviation that its members have encountered “chronic” and “systemic” staffing problems at Airservices dating back to before the COVID-19 pandemic. It comes after reports emerged earlier this year that there were 340 instances of “uncontrolled airspace” from June to April 2023, with Airservices admitting to “staff availability issues”. The issue re-emerged last week after aircraft on Thursday had to “self-separate” from each other and rely on radio broadcasts rather than centralised information from air traffic controllers. Switching to TIBA — traffic information broadcasts by aircraft — leads to delays and cancellations, with Virgin’s policy not to operate in TIBA airspace when possible. Airservices, however, insists its TIBA workaround procedure is both safe and “internationally recognised”. Captain Louise Pole, president of AFAP, and Marcus Diamond, safety and technical manager at AFAP, detailed the issues its members have encountered. Captain Pole pointed to a survey of AFAP members that found almost 31% of pilots experienced delays multiple times per month, 72% reported an efficiency of flight issue due to contingency measures like TIBA, which most pilots see as unsafe and inefficient, and 15% reported traffic proximity or separation issues within the last six months. “We’ve had extensive responses from all our members around Australia that they are experiencing unforecast holding due to lack of available air traffic control staffing numbers. They’re experiencing TIBA airspace at short notice, and that’s possibly meaning flights can’t depart — and if they can depart, they’ve got quite large diversion routes required to go around that airspace,” she said.<br/>